Wednesday, March 23, 2005

The Cynics Were Right

If you had to ONE thing to give to your parents to prove that sending you to college was "worth it"... what would you give them? Something that represented your initiation into the professional world. Something that showed them that their 'baby boy' was all growed up. It isn't expensive, and it doesn't have any actual value but your first set of business cards have quite a high symbolic value.
While I was ordering my cards, I kept asking my mentor what I should put on them. And eventually he broke down, and said "it doesn't matter what you put on them, because it will be outdated in about 3 months." And, I'm like... whatever.
Well, what do you know... today I learned that my entire organization was moving to a new business unit. My cards say: "Shared Services Group", but I'm no longer part of that business unit.
Damnit.

Friday, March 18, 2005

Another Reason...

I just thought of another thing that has made me happy I'm working for Boeing.
Randy's Blog was started just before I came back to work. At first I thought it was going to be mediocre, but as I've been reading it (its updated once a week or so), I've actually started to enjoy it.
I really like the fact that Boeing has an official blog. Lots of companies have blogs, but... I think it would be safe to say that more companies DON'T have blogs, and it's cool to work for a company that has executives that enjoy doing the same things you do (blogging). I really hope that Boeing has some other people start keeping official blogs... that would make me happy.

Awesomeness of Boeing

I've got a quick story about how working at Boeing can be really awesome
So, I had a marginal day at work on Wednesday... I had a bunch of work to get done for a meeting I had on Thursday. I normally leave work a few minutes before 5PM because it seems like I can miss a lot of traffic, and make it home a few minutes quicker (or stay until 6:30PM to let all the traffic dissipate). But, because of the work I had to get done, I didn't leave until about 5:20PM and traffic on I-5 was in full-swing... so it was going to take me atleast 45 minutes to get home (without traffic, it is a 27 minute drive).
I was sitting in traffic, getting more and more annoyed with myself for leaving late. And just being annoyed with traffic in general. Then, I caught a glimpse of something that made my mood to completely turn around. Boeing's recently completed 777-200LR Worldliner is still in flight test, so it is flying in and out of Boeing Field. I happened to catch the new plane about 1/4 of a mile off the end of the runway on its final approach. It totally made my day... I wish I had had a camera to take a picture, but fortunately Boeing has plenty of picturesof it.

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Rolling Backpacks

I must have just not have been paying attention, but people are getting unbelievably lazy. When did carrying your briefcase or backpack become too much of a burden? People with the rolling "carry-on" bags are EVERYWHERE. Then it struck me... workplaces are just like high school.

In high school, one person has a mediocre idea... then the "popular kid" thinks its the greatest idea ever... then EVERYONE jumps on the bandwagon. I know everyone's high school had a different weird fad, but every school has one. If I remembered much about high school, I could probably tell you want my school's was... but alas, nope.

Another weird fad at Boeing (and I'm sure other places) is what we (the younger Boeingers) have dubbed "Badge Flair." If you're unfamiliar with flair, you must see Office Space. Most people have their badge on a lanyard around their neck. Then attached to this lanyard is a plastic holder for the badge. The plastic holder has some edges on it that have enough room to put pins on. So, now the competition is to find the coolest pin to put on your badge. And of course... the more pins the cooler you are, so people are rolling with some massive collections of "bling" attached to their badges.

Tomorrow is my first day of working from home... we'll see how that goes. Most people say they're more productive at home, but... well... we'll see.